Law Schools

Charlotte Law School Pulls Rug Out From Students

Things take a turn for the worse for Charlotte students.

By  
on

12764863_gUPDATE (1/19/17 4:22 p.m.): Since this story came out, we’ve learned that the school has laid off dozens of faculty members. Read more here.

Remember when we were hearing rumblings from Charlotte Law that everything was under control? Sure they’d gotten a black eye from the Department of Education — who took away their federal loan money over poor bar passage rates — but students didn’t need to worry, because the school would have everything straightened out and classes would resume in January. There would be a “teach-out” plan with the DOE that would get the loan money flowing again and we’d all look back at this someday and laugh, we heard.

Well, that’s not exactly in the cards. Per the Charlotte Observer last night:

In a statement sent to Charlotte School of Law’s students Wednesday, a top U.S. Department of Education official said his agency and the law school had reached an agreement in principle that would have freed up some of the federal loan money in time for the planned start of classes Monday.

Instead, Charlotte School of Law “has since rejected what it had previously accepted and has informed the Department that it will not be accepting the conditions set,” Under Secretary of Education Ted Mitchell said.

The derisive “has since rejected what it had previously accepted” language suggests the DOE may not see Charlotte as a forthright negotiating partner at this point. And it makes all the talk out of Charlotte of an impending agreement sound a lot like just stringing along students hoping to finish out the year.

One of the major sticking points was the so-called “teach-out” plan in which CSL would partner with another school so its current students could complete their educations. Under the plan, Charlotte School of Law would close for good in the spring.

In his statement, Mitchell said the government insisted that all further instruction of Charlotte School of Law students had to be conducted “only by a teach-out partner.” In CSL’s case, that would have been Florida Coastal School of Law, one of the Charlotte school’s sister institutions in the InfiLaw for-profit chain.

How was this a sticking point? I’m sure the Charlotte folks wanted to keep teaching, but the school isn’t realistically likely to survive more than a semester no matter what happens, so why drag it out? Let the students finish up at Florida Coastal and let InfiLaw keep counting its money.

Sponsored

In addition, Mitchell said any new loans had to be handled in a way “that does not create risk to taxpayers.”

Seems like an irreconcilable sticking point to me. A high number of Charlotte grads will never make enough bread to pay off their loans and that leaves the government holding the bag. Some might say that’s why we should eliminate federally backed loans altogether, but that’s just crazy talk.

For now, the school needs to step up and get an agreement with the DOE to get its current crop of students graduated — they may or may not be able to pay off their loans, but without a degree they’ll definitely not be making that money back — and then close up shop.

Feds, Charlotte School of Law fail to reach agreement over federal student loans
Teach-out plan for Charlotte School of Law in the works [ABA Journal]

Sponsored

HeadshotJoe Patrice is an editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news.

Topics

, , , , ,